Revelation Blood Terrors(Revelation 16.5-7)Page 223

"Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say, 'You are just in these judgments, O Holy One, you who are and who were; for they have shed the blood of your holy people and your prophets, and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve.' And I heard the altar respond, 'Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments.'" (Revelation 16.5-7)✞

Terrors Which Follow

It is easy to see how many things these lists of Revelation blood terrors have in common with the everyday occurences of the early Christians. The hail, the darkness, the blood in the waters, the ulcerous sores, the coming of the terrible hordes from beyond the Euphrates are all experiences Christians would have known. But in Revelation there is this difference between the terrors which follow the trumpets and the terrors which follow the pouring out of the bowls. In the former, the destruction is always limited, for instance, to one third of the earth, but in the latter the destruction is complete on the enemies of God. The eminent Biblical scholar, Dr William Barclay (1907-1978) wrote in "The Revelation of John,""In this final series of terrors, John seems to have gathered together the horrors from all the stories of the avenging wrath of God and to have hurled them on the unbelieving world in one last terrible deluge of disaster."✞